


I Don't Want to be Alone

by TelekineticIssue



Series: LoK Tumblr Requests [4]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alcohol, F/F, Fluff, tiny angst?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27072616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TelekineticIssue/pseuds/TelekineticIssue
Summary: It's the first time Lin's able to take the bandages off after the accident. She doesn't want to be alone when she sees it, and goes to the one person she trusts most.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Series: LoK Tumblr Requests [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972630
Comments: 4
Kudos: 141





	I Don't Want to be Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by @winter-deerling on Tumblr. This one punched me in the heart and I was very excited to get into writing it!!

Lin screws up her face into something she hopes says “bravery” before she knocks on Kya’s childhood bedroom door. Her knuckles make a satisfying and familiar sound on the wood, one she’s heard hundreds of times, and yet it never ceases to make something flip over in her stomach like next time she knocks something will be irrevocably different. She supposes this is that different time in and of itself as Kya pops the door open, already in pajamas even though the sun hasn’t really set yet.

“What’s up, Lin?”

“Uh, I.” Lin’s suddenly tongue tied at the sight of Kya in what is undeniably _her_ tank top with how it clings across the chest but is a touch too loose at the bottom. Kya doesn’t seem to notice. “Katara said I could take the bandages off,” Lin says, gesturing at her right cheek.

“Oh,” Kya says, “Shit. Here.” She beckons Lin inside and shuts the door securely behind them. “Go sit.” She waves a hand toward her bed and steps over to her dresser to dig around in the bottom drawer. Lin realizes after a second that she’s actually reaching behind it to pull out a bottle of whiskey.

“Won’t your dad go berserk if he finds that?”

“I’m an adult, and Dad always said I could choose my own lifestyle.” Kya plunks two glasses down on her desk and sloshes some of the liquor into each. She passes one to Lin before hiding the bottle away again.

“Cheers,” Lin says glumly as their glasses clink together. She tosses back the drink with familiarity, though her nose wrinkles afterward. “Spirits, how long has that been back there?”

“Maybe a couple years too long,” Kya laughs, setting aside her own empty glass. “So? What’s the plan here?”

“I didn’t want to be alone,” Lin admits softly. Kya pulls her into a one-armed hug.

“Do you want to do it, or should I?”

Lin weighs the options in her mind. She had a feeling she’d lose heart halfway through, so she takes a chance and puts one of her hands on Kya’s.

“Will you?”

“Of course. Sit up and turn this way.”

Kya guides Lin until she’s sitting up against the headboard and, much to Lin’s mortification, sits in her lap. There’s a bit of a sparkle in her eyes that tells Lin Kya knows exactly what she’s done, though she won’t acknowledge it unless Lin does.

“Just, try not to do it too hard.”

Kya’s lips twitch into a small smile. “I did train as a healer, too, you know.”

Lin almost doesn’t notice she’s started peeling the bandage off until the brush of Kya’s fingers on her face causes her breathing to hitch. The sensation disappears instantly.

“Did I hurt you?” Kya’s eyebrows scrunch together in worry. Lin shakes her head.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re a bad liar,” Kya says. She resumes her task with the tip of her tongue stuck out in concentration. Her expression remains somewhat even as more of the injury is revealed, but Lin doesn’t miss the worried tilt of her head.

The last of the adhesive comes free with a quiet sound Lin thinks might just be a feeling rather than something audible, and Kya tosses the bandage into the small trash bin by her desk.

“That’s it.” Kya tilts Lin’s face to the left with a gentle thumb on her chin. Lin hopes it’s just the way she’s facing when the thumb slips slightly higher to brush against her bottom lip. It’s all Lin can do to keep her breathing steady at this point.

“Are you ready to look?” Kya asks, reaching for a hand mirror. Lin nods, taking it from her and steeling herself for something awful.

It’s both worse and better than expected. Katara’s healing and Spirits knew what she’d put over the wound had kept the damage from spreading too far. Lin remembered the agony of the immediate aftermath and the constant throbbing pain of the first week of healing fading into a constant buzz of low pain, but the two healing cuts across her cheek looked far less angry than she’d imagined them to be. One crept higher than the other, seeking the corner of her eye, and Lin recalls at some point in the haze of blood and tears that Katara had mentioned healing bone.

“Lin, you okay?” Kya sets the mirror aside and clasps Lin’s shaking hands in her own. “Lin. They’re healing beautifully. Mom’s doing an awesome job keeping them as minimal as possible.”

“I know.” Lin tries to stop the tears from slipping down her cheeks, and the sting of salt brings more to her eyes. “I’ll never look like before.”

“Oh, baby, you don’t need to,” Kya says before she can stop herself, “You’re stunning.”

“What?” Lin half-chokes on a sob, and Kya, red-faced, dabs at her uninjured cheek and above the scars with the hem of her tank top. Lin makes another strangled sound and grabs her hand, pulling it away.

“Still hurts,” she croaks.

“Shit, sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Lin grimaces with only one half of her face, tears forgotten, and it’s enough to make Kya have to squash down a sappy smile. Kya tries to scoot away, but Lin holds her fast and fixes a serious expression on her.

“You think I’m pretty?”

“I’d have to be blind not to,” Kya snorts. Lin looks aghast at her while Kya replays the sentence in her mind. “Oh, Spirits, no,” she says, drawing out the ‘o’ as she collapses dramatically backward with her face in her hands. Lin laughs, a genuine, sweet sound that has Kya peeking through her fingers to catch a glimpse of the accompanying openmouthed smile she loves so much. It’s less wide than usual but no less gorgeous.

“Seriously, Kya.” Lin rests a hand on Kya’s thigh, not missing the twitch it causes. “Do you mean, like, objectively?”

“I mean, obviously, because you’re you, but also subjectively,” Kya mutters from behind her hands. This was not how this conversation was supposed to go.

“Oh.” Lin’s quiet, and Kya prepares for her to leave in a hurry just like all the others. She sighs and sits up, swinging her legs off the bed to allow Lin an easy escape.

“You don’t have to stay.”

“You want me to leave?” Lin asks, hurt.

“Uh, no, I’d like you to stay. I just thought I made you uncomfortable.”

“No? I can take a compliment, Kya,” Lin says, reaching a hand out. Kya grabs it, surprised when Lin tugs her closer until she’s back in the younger woman’s lap. “Especially,” she adds, “from someone like you.” She emphasizes it by tapping the tip of Kya’s nose, who makes a sound much similar to Lin’s awkward squawk from some minutes ago.

“Lin Beifong, you…I…girls?”

Lin, blushing furiously, nods. “Well, just one so far.”

Kya nearly stops breathing. “Me?”

“You,” Lin confirms, bringing a hand up to cup Kya’s cheek.

“Oh.”

The kiss is clumsy, unplanned, and it leaves both yearning for more. Kya lets out a shaky breath when Lin’s eyes flutter back open, the nearly set sun making the green look like stained glass. Unbeknownst to Kya, Lin’s thinking much the same about the blue of her eyes.

“I should probably go home,” Lin finally says.

“Right.” Kya tries not to look disappointed.

“Or I could stay?”

If not for the movement of her lips, Kya wouldn’t have known Lin had truly spoken.

“I’m not opposed to that.”

Tonight _was_ different, Lin decides, wrapped in Kya’s arms as the waterbender snores softly behind her. It most definitely wasn’t the type of different she’d been expecting, perhaps, but it was different all the same.

And she could definitely live with this kind of different.


End file.
